poorness
(ˈpʊənɪs)
[f. poor a. + -ness.]
The quality or condition of being poor; poverty.
† 1. Want of wealth or possessions; indigence. Obs. (Now replaced by poverty.)
| c 1275 Sinners Beware 113 in O.E. Misc. 75 Þe poure may wel mysse Bute he his pouernesse Mid mylde heorte þolye. 1382 Wyclif 1 Chron. xxii. 14 Loo! I in my lytyl pornesse haue mad redy before the expenses of the hous of the Lord. c 1450 Godstow Reg. 71 For powrenesse of his vicariage. 1613 Chapman Revenge Bussy D'Ambois i. i, See how small cause..the most poore man [has] to be grieu'd with poorenesse. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1662) iii. 11 Which See,..for the poorness thereof, lay Bishopless for three years. |
b. fig. (Cf. poor a. 1 d.)
| 1380 Lay Folks Catech. 1265 (Lamb. MS.) To schew hem meknesse and porenesse to stoppe pride. 1786 A. Maclean Christ's Commission iii. (1846) 129 [The Gospel] enjoins poorness of Spirit. |
2. Deficiency in some good constituent; unproductiveness; leanness or want of vigour caused by ill feeding; thinness, scantiness, insufficiency.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 142 b, Lacke of good feeding, whereof proceedeth poorenesse, and of poorenesse, skabbes and manginesse. 1626 Bacon Sylva §665 The Poornesse of the Herbs..shew the Poornesse of the Earth. 1782 H. Watson in Med. Commun. (1784) I. 89 From the poorness of the blood contained in its vessels. 1883 Contemp. Rev. June 904 Exhausted from poorness of diet. |
3. Deficiency in some desirable quality; smallness of worth; inferiority, paltriness, meanness. Also (with pl.) an instance of this, a paltry or inferior piece of work.
| 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. v. 1493 Let none the poorenesse of my gifts deride. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 285 ¶4 Ovid and Lucan have many Poornesses of Expression upon this Account. 1884 Law Times 29 Nov. 73/2 The poorness of the accommodation provided for the judges. |
b. Want of spirit or courage; paltriness or meanness of character or conduct.
| 1625 Bacon Ess., Simulation (Arb.) 507 A Habit of Dissimulation, is a Hinderance, and a Poorenesse. a 1716 South Serm. (1744) X. 226 Those indeed..would, no question, account all refusal of a duel poorness and pusillanimity. 1822 C. Wells Stories after Nat. 99 The duke unhorsed the lady, chiding Alfred for his poorness. |